Barcelona: at the forefront of the digital catwalk
They say that if you can't beat your enemy, join him. But this is not the path that 080 Barcelona Fashion has taken. But he has bet everything on the digital showcase. When most of the catwalks have returned to face-to-face or have offered hybrid shows between the digital and the physical, the Catalan fashion week continues to bet on video presentations (a format that boosted the pandemic), but with its own stamp, since that all the designers and brands participating in the edition that begins this Monday have shot their collections in the same place, the Epacio XC of the sculptor Xavier Corberó, in Esplugues de Llobregat (Barcelona). From Monday to Thursday, 22 firms will present their new collections through the fashion platform's website.
“Barcelona was always compared to other fashion weeks and despite being well positioned it was more modest”, admits Marta Coca, director of 080, who has given this runway a twist. The pandemic was what forced them to explore the digital format, but it seems that it has turned out to be a good alternative to stand out and find their own unique path within this competitive sector.
“This is how we solve a temporary problem, but we have realized that we could have a new project with a vision that allows us to get out of the fashion weeks calendar and set up our super league”, launches Coca. The last two editions, with videos recorded in the Sant Pau Modernist Site and in La Pedrera, have served to jump beyond the screen to fashion magazines from other countries, which were not reached when fashion week it was face-to-face because its spotlights were on the capitals that rule the fashion show such as Paris, Milan or New York.
The will now is to work with qualitative indicators and the positioning of the platform, says Coca, who assures that the last two editions have gone further than ever, with appearances in specialized magazines in Japan, Germany, Italy or France. This positioning does not mean that the 080 is going to remain in a strictly digital format, but rather that the organization has in mind to be able to come up with a hybrid model of characteristics that it cannot yet venture because the main thing is to find the formula that weaves the two worlds together, something to what is needed is the support of sponsors.
The uniqueness of the digital platform that 080 has created is that all the recordings have the same setting and quality as a cover letter. It is the organization that chooses an emblematic building in Barcelona and records the videos there with its team. In this third digital edition, and the 28th of the catwalk, the chosen place breaks completely with the modernist aesthetics explored so far: it is the monumental house of the late sculptor Xavier Corberó, a rationalist work where the content is as imposing as the continent, which houses 200 works of the artist.
I am also totally fascinated by Stalin photoshopping himself to look bigger and hotter next to Lenin
— Jennifer Williams Sun Jul 18 14:37:16 +0000 2021
Designer Support
Designers are comfortable with this model. Júlia G. Escribà, who parades for the second time, is overjoyed. "We already wanted to record something at Xavier Corberó's Espai XC", she says excitedly. So when she saw that this edition was recorded there, it was even clearer to her. “Our collection is called Utopia and it shares with the space these values of combining the traditional with the new, the building has Mediterranean roots, but it is futuristic and our garments combine roots with technology”. Júlia G. Escribà works her garments with a technological fabric that reads the body's temperature and adapts to keep it more or less warm thanks to microcapsules. At 21 years old, her style is timeless and genderless and she hopes to be able to market her second collection in 2022. At the moment, she anticipates that she has made a capsule for Lurdes Bergada that will be in stores in April. She relies on co-branding as an avenue for her ideas.
Álvaro Calafat also participates for the second time. With her collection Chapter 2: Memories, she believes that she has come to express what he wants. Her audiovisual piece is presented as a museum of memories where each item of clothing tells something about her life, from the bullying she suffered at school, to a satin blouse with a squeezing hand around the neck, made of recycled plastic printed on 3D; even her love for her grandmother, whose face is mixed with other symbols of her biography in the print of some garments. "I work with crafts and technology at the same time," she clarifies. He is one of the few designers who have set up a physical event coinciding with the digital catwalk. It is by invitation and he will be the gateway to this museum of memories, a showcase with 15 looks from his collection at the Pullitzer Hotel, the same week that he will launch a prêt-à-porter system to measure on order through his website.
Along the same line of enthusiasm for the format is Carles Gràcia, creative director of Escorpion, veteran of fashion week. He is happy to be able to further explain the philosophy of the collection with this type of presentation. He misses “the adrenaline and the punch”, but focuses more on the advantages. The latest edition brought them more impact at an international level, something important for a firm that sells 40% abroad. In addition, he highlights that the digital repercussion lasts longer. For him, it would be a good option to combine a digital edition with a face-to-face edition, although if he had to keep one it would be the cloud version. “We would not return to all face-to-face”, he concludes, after being impressed with the videos recorded at the Espai XC, where they show a new collection of stone and gray tones with natural materials that wants to break stereotypes with the feminine and the masculine with the claim My way.
“There is no other model, the catwalk with the traditional concept has to die. There is no other than opening up to the world.” That's how clear it is to Jose María Garcia-Planas, creative director of The (Real) Garcia, a brand with less than a year of life that defines itself "as basic, timeless and sustainable" and that has behind a family dedicated to textiles for six generations. For them, the experience of shooting in the 080 has been “fabulous”. Garcia-Planas recalls a meeting with the sculptor Xavier Corberó at his home in the eighties and surrenders to the artist's monument while acknowledging that, although he had been critical of the catwalk shows and institutional support, his vision has changed with this new format. “This is another story, we are interested because we believe in the digital world and the communication that fashion film allows”.
